Tech manufacturing orders up 5.3% over 2011

Year-to-date U.S. manufacturing technology orders are up 5.3 percent over 2011.

The Association For Manufacturing Technology says October orders totaled $459.16 million, a total that’s down 31.3 percent from September and down 0.1 percent when compared with the total of $459.41 million reported for October 2011. With a year-to-date total of $4,753.68 million, 2012 is up 5.3 percent compared with 2011.

“Orders continue to be on pace for a record-setting year, and a monthly drop was fully ex­pected in the month following IMTS,” said AMT President Douglas Woods. “While manu­facturing continues to play a strong role in economic recovery, our main concern heading toward the end of the year is that lawmakers do what’s necessary to avoid the ‘fiscal cliff,’ and the impli­cations it could have on the broader economy.”

The United States Manufacturing Technology Orders report, compiled by the trade association representing the production and distribution of manufacturing technology, pro­vides regional and national U.S. orders data of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment.

Manufacturing technology orders in the Northeast Region in October totaled $63.69 million, down 19.7% from September’s $79.27 million and down 3.6% when compared with the October 2011 figure. At $640.83 million, 2012 year-to-date is down 5.7% when compared with 2011 at the same time.

Southern Region

Southern Region manufacturing technology orders totaled $60.69 million in October, down 41.1% from the $102.99 million total for September but 12.8% higher than the total for October 2011. The year-to-date total of $683.23 million is 15.3% more than the comparable figure for 2011.

Midwest Region

At $162.75 million, October manufacturing technology orders in the Midwest Region were down 20.0% when compared with the $203.33 million total for September but up 10.3% when compared with October a year ago. With a year-to-date total of $1,530.30 million, 2012 is up 4.9% when compared with 2011 at the same time.

Central Region

October manufacturing technology orders in the Central Region totaled $124.77 million, 30.2% lower than September’s $178.71 million and down 8.8% when compared with the October 2011 figure. At $1,341.76 million, the 2012 year-to-date total was 6.8% more than the comparable figure for 2011.

Western Region

Western Region manufacturing technology orders in October stood at $47.27 million, down 54.6% from the September total of $104.07 million and 14.3% lower than the figure for October 2011. The $557.56 mil­lion year-to-date total was 5.7% above the total for the same period in 2011.

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